2/6/12

Many of you know that I have a crush on Sweden. It probably
started with the Shout Out Louds. Then, there was the Poetry in Translation
class I took with the Swedish poet Malena Mörling, whose book, Astoria, I recently read and highly recommend. Around this time, I discovered
the music of Loney Dear, one of the most sincere live performers I’ve ever
seen. Then there was Jens Lekman, girls with dragon tattoos, Robyn (of course),
and most recently, this article, which delves into the question: “What makes
the Swedes glow with health?”

Enter Lisa, who I met through my good friend Heather. Lisa’s
mom grew up in Sweden, and, well, it didn’t take us too long to come to the necessary
conclusion that we must meet up to make Swedish cardamom buns and drink Glögg.

However, by the time Lisa and I found a free afternoon to
make these cardamom buns, she was in the middle of a cleanse. How Swedish is
that? (Sweden’s a bastion of health and wellness, remember?) So, while Lisa
couldn’t chow down on gluten-y, sugary foods and vodka-based beverages, Matt and I were
very much available to partake in both. Of course, there is a difference
between chowing down and fika, which
Lisa explained, is Swedish for taking a break to drink coffee or tea and eat
something sweet—usually a cardamom bun—with a friend. (Seriously, that
four-letter word means all of that, and it can be used as a verb or a noun!) So, while the cleanse may have
stopped her from sipping the aforementioned Glögg, it didn’t put a damper on
the fika.

See, I think it’s important to note that these are not the
kind of cinnamon buns you find at the food court. No, these buns are much more
Swedish. They are subtly sweet. There is no extra glaze on top and no cream
cheese filling. I also think it’s important to note that it’s 2pm in the
afternoon and one is warming up in the toaster oven as I type this.

This version here is a combination of two Swedish recipes,
one of which comes to us via Lisa’s brother’s girlfriend, Ebba, and the other
from Lisa’s Aunt Veronica, which she translated into English for us, and which
was titled “Mommy’s Buns.” So I must extend a big thank you to these
ladies for all of the information!

Hear that? It’s the ding of the toaster
oven. Excuse me while I go fika.

To do this: [I kind of love this detail from one of the recipes we used.
Instead of the classic directions, to do this seems so much more deliberate.]

Start
with the dough. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the milk. Warm
the mixture until it is “finger warm," a.k.a. room temperature. Dissolve
the yeast into this mixture. Let it sit a few minutes. (It should look a
bit foamy.) Then, add the salt, sugar and cardamom. Stir.

Transfer mixture to an electric mixer or, if mixing by hand, a large
mixing bowl. Add about 2/3 of the flour and mix until it becomes smooth
and shiny. Add a little more flour, but save enough for kneading later.
The dough is ready when it easily releases from the sides of the bowl.
Cover the bowl with a thin towel, place it in a warm spot, and let it
rise until it is twice the original size (about 30 minutes).

Remove the dough from the bowl, and using the rest of the flour,
knead it lightly on a floured surface until smooth and shiny. Divide dough
into two halves. Roll each half of dough into a thin, big rectangle.

Combine
the filling ingredients and then spread evenly over one of the
rectangles. Place the other dough rectangle right on top, making a
sandwich! Then, roll the sandwich up, long side to long side, to form a
long cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut each cylinder into equal slices.

Place each slice into a paper cupcake holder and arrange on top of a
rimmed baking sheet. Cover them with a towel and let rise until doubled
in size (about 30-45 min). Preheat oven to 425 F. Once the buns have risen, brush the rolls with the beaten egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake in center of oven at 425 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Tip: It's fine to make a double batch (or more)! [This was taken verbatim from one of the recipes. Such a great tip!]

Shelf life: At room temperature, the buns quickly become dry out, so if you don’t intend on eating them soon, freeze them!

I've never had the guts to try glogg. This from a Scottish girl (albeit one who handles liquor like a 2-year old)...

So do you 'have a fika' or just 'fika' and can one have 'fikad' in the past or does it only apply to present tense. Curious minds want to know and not make fools of themselves in front of Swedes. But curious minds also want to adopt said word into curious lexicon because it's perfect.

This, by the way, makes me wonder about how much we're missing out on in English. You know, how Eskimos have numerous words for snow and we just have snow, and maybe sleet or blizzard. And how, even in British culture where the afternoon tea break is such an integral part of life that we all have an internal clock that starts buzzing at 3pm, there is no awesome word to describe it. Fika. Excellent.

I fell in love with Cardamom Buns during my last visit to Sweden over the summer and have been searching for them in California ever since- now I can just make them! Thanks for a little taste of Sweden

I love your conversion from the metric to the US system on your printed recipe because I have to convert from the US to the metric system. :) (Still not used to the American system.) Anyway, I love glogg too, and your Swedish buns look delicious.

I want to take a minute to thank you for sharing this recipe. I have family from sweden, and I have to say that I have never really attempted to learn anything about the culture, foods, lifestyle etc until recently. I am a young woman, who after many years of not really being allowed to know much about Sweden and the heritage I am, am now learning to embrace a culture after many years. I picked your recipe to try for my first Swedish food after doing some extensive research. This one seemed to be the best way to go. I have always wondered about my lifelines, my family, and where I came from. With this recipe, I now feel like I have a bit a connection with who I am. I know it may sound funny that a recipe helps me feel like I am connected to my lifelines, but food is very important of any culture. Right? In any case. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this so that I may start to get to know who I am. It has helped me a lot. And I thank you for that.

The above was set out, however, before my big culinary change of heart, as documented here. And while we're on the subject of pivotal moments... there have been a few over the (6) years, like this one and this one and, of course, this one AND now this one!